


Every Little Thing

by grimgrace



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 13:54:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimgrace/pseuds/grimgrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AH/AU Klaroline fic. Klaus is a British mystery with family problems, and Caroline is a neurotic secretary in the fashion industry. A love story with pastries, sex and weddings. Mostly the pastries, though. rated for swearing, but expect it to dial up to explicit at some point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise. There are numerous pop-culture references throughout this fic that I also make no claim on. Everything belongs to its respective owners, and this writing is not for profit. (In fact, considering the toll it takes on the time I should be spending looking for a job, it's probably costing me money).

— **prologue —**

* * *

 

After the door swung open, there was a tense moment of silence, during which the young blonde stared at her brother. His back was tense—the way that it used to coil when he was about to throw one of his tantrums—but his fists were clenched at his side—the way that they used to clench when someone would bully her and he would come to her rescue. She knew him well enough to know that the combination was dangerous, and he was nearing a point that shouldn't be taken lightly.

She closed the door softly behind her. "Nik?" she called quietly to him, hoping that she wouldn't startle him. "Are you alright?"

She didn't take him by surprise, but she watched his shoulder's tense at her voice. He had heard her enter when the door had creaked open, but he'd been happy to stay inside his head for the few extra minutes. But she was his sister and she would understand. In fact, she was probably the only other woman he could talk to about this.

"I'm done." His hoarse voice cut through the silence. "With him—with this company—with everything. I'm not going to take this anymore."

Rebekah nodded her head, moving around the room so that she could see his face. The tux he wore was barely even wrinkled, the wrong attire for a man who was so angry with the world. Well, no. Not with the world.

With his family.

"Nick, maybe you should think about this... sit down?"

He shrugged off her words like she'd touched him and took a solid step back. "No." He said, so suddenly she jumped a little. She wasn't scared of him. She'd never been scared of him. But she knew what he was capable of, and she didn't want him to break anything or shout too loudly. Nothing that would embarrass their parents in front of their guests.

"Not this time, Bekah. He's fucked with me my entire life—and I could deal with it when it was just Tatia. I could even deal with him setting back the Hybrid Project."

He lifted his gaze to meet his sister's, and she was surprised to see the amount of pure fury within his heavy stare. "But this is Caroline, Bekah. And if he even thinks about going near her, I'll kill him."

 

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

— **one —**

* * *

Caroline wasn't at all sure how to react when Elena introduced her to her new boyfriend. (Elena's new boyfriend, that is. It isn't like Elena just went out one day and brought a man home for Caroline).

Because there was always a sort of ritual to be observed with these sorts of things, right? The boyfriend of a bestie was automatically placed in this weird place – hung in the static between total approval and the ability to hate him immediately upon the first mistake. More than that though, there was etiquette that had to be taken into account. Caroline had to find the perfect balance between ' _if you ever hurt her, I will head down to the local NY probation offices and let slip to every repeat offender inside that you like to touch children in the naughty places_ ' and ' _I really like you and I think you'll be great for her_ ' – that observation had yet to be made, though, just for the record. Caroline had seen the way Elena lit up whenever she mentioned the new boyf, but it was Caroline's duty to remain steadfast and impartial – to be wise where Elena's hormones might have blinded her. (Ha. Then again this was Elena Gilbert they were talking about.)

In addition to that, Caroline had to make sure she didn't get too close, because hello? Best friend's boyfriends were the be all end all of off limits. She'd have to toe the line between 'oh, Elena, you are a genius you have chosen the correct male specimen to share the rest of your life with' and 'he's so hot – if you don't want him, _I'll_ have him.'

On top of that, it was all Caroline could do to hope that he wasn't a total jack off, because Caroline had a couple of problems and subtlety was pretty high on that list.

 _And_ it was even more than just those basics this time.

For starters, this guy that Elena was now seeing was the first boyfriend that she'd had outside of the Salvatore gene pool since Matthew fucking Donovan in eighth grade, and that in itself was a revelation. They'd only been dating a month and already Elena seemed in a clearer happier headspace with her relationship than she'd been in for years (understandable. Where the Stefan-Damon saga was concerned, there was little to be calm and collected about).

So this new bloke came with _expectations_. Elena was an inherently private kind of girl, choosing to share her deepest darkest with her diaries, rather than a flesh and blood Caroline. (Or, even a Bonnie). But even Elena – _Elena fucking Gilbert_ – had had a little boast about how good looking the new man was.

Which made Caroline worried. Because now there was _pressure_ on top of the expectations on top of the etiquette on top of the rituals. And a fuckton of it at that.

(And could Caroline really handle that right now? Because if she screwed this up for Elena, she more than screwed herself – not that she wasn't more concerned about fucking it up for Elena that she was for herself.

Look, it was a big complicated mess, is the point, okay?)

So there was preparation. And pep talks. (" _Slut Caroline is a whore of the past_ – slash – _stay strong for the sake of feminism_ – slash – _I am a strong, independent fashion designer who definitely don't need a man_.")

And with all that, she figured that maybe she'd be a little bit prepared for the new man that had swept Elena so thoroughly off her feet.

She wasn't.

(Through no fault of her own, she'd like to add, because who could really, honestly prepare themselves for a man like that?)

Because if you had to use one word to describe Elijah Mikaelson, it would be 'fucking-terrifying'. (And yeah, that's hyphenated).

Elena and Caroline had been living together in the city for almost a year and a half now. Theirs was supposed to be a life of easily available cabs and expensive designers dresses (ala Gossip Girl, because Blair Waldorf had some mother fucking _style_ ) and they were supposed to find their own Nate Archibald (Elena's choice of flavour) and Chuck Bass (those scarves – _yum_ ).

As it was, their live until that point had been a whirlwind of the fuckload of money that was required to just _live_ in New York City, and running all over town buying the real life Serena Van Der Woodsen's their coffee (in designer fucking cups). They were on their way though, heading up in life. Elena was making her slow and steady way through the works in one of New Yorks more prominent editing companies, and Caroline was already the assistant to the assistant of the personal assistant of the up and coming new fashion designer, Eden de Wintours.

(The other third of their little trio had stayed – probably sensibly – back home, engaged to Elena's little brother and the most popular kindergarten teacher in all of Mystic Falls).

But just because they'd left their small hometown behind, didn't mean that Elena and Caroline couldn't have nice things.

And Elijah?

He was a _very nice thing._

Even if he was, as mentioned earlier, scary as fuck.

Anyway, the two girls were sitting in their apartment when he arrived. Despite her planning and schemes, Caroline was unprepared for his arrival – to busy nursing a false and cruel hangover from an enthusiastic night previous. All she knew really, as far as her consciousness was concerned, was that her head was heavy, her vision was spinning and she was tired – probably because she got home at about four in the morning and it was barely even nine o'clock Saturday morn). Also that she was really fucking hungry, but she was willing to ignore that for the time being in aid of bemoaning her current existence and her all round patheticness.

(Because the hangover? Not even a _real_ hangover. As was pointed out earlier, this was a false and cruel and vindictive bitch of a headache, the result of running around doing her boss favours all night without a single drop of aid from her trusty friend, _alcoholic substance_ ).

Elena was, as always, looking flawless as she bustled around in the kitchen, _fucking humming_ and nervously making Caroline a coffee. (Nervous about Elijah, that is. Not about the coffee. Because Elena Gilbert was a fucking caffeine _connoisseur_ ).

"You're sure you don't want me to tell Elijah to wait a couple of hours? He can always come over after lunch?"

Ugh. What a martyr.

(Yeah, there was a chance that with a deceptive hangover and a grumbly tummy, Caroline was a bit of a bitch. What Elena did to deserve her as a friend, she'd never know – but it must have been something _horrible_ ).

It was mostly guilt over the horrible thoughts in her head that had Caroline let out a moan that she hoped came out in the negative. She would have shaken her head, but she had a suspicion that she might _actually die_ if she did that, so she held back.

Instead, she used her words. "I have been waiting a whole month to meet this man," she whined from the couch. "We are talking about the amazing, gorgeous, fantastic new boyfriend you've been gushing about, right?

Elena rolled her eyes, but Caroline could see through her own squinted eyelids that she was smiling to herself, blushing prettily as she stirred the coffee. (Two words: _Smit – ten_ ).

It was about that point when Elijah's knock came on the door. Elena took a moment to make sure she was presentable (like she said, _flawless_ , the bitch) before heading to the door. Caroline did her best to not look as miserable as she felt. It was just after he'd kissed Elena hello that Caroline caught sight of him.

It was all she could do to not let out a noise, as she realised that he was a) sculpted like a Greek god with the facial structure akin to someone with great facial features (what part of stupid fucking fake hangover did you not understand?) and b) pretty much the most terrifying man she'd ever seen, _ever._

Also, it was abundantly clear what Elena saw in him. (He was wearing a suit. It was ten o-seven in the morning and he was wearing a mother fucking suit. Jesus Christ was that _Dolce?_ )

Caroline felt suddenly compelled to ask how (in the name of all the gods that have ever been and ever would be) Elena had refrained from banging this man immediately and without hesitation. The answer had to be that she _hadn't_ and was clearly just a shit friend who hadn't been sharing all the kinky details with her best friend – even though Caroline was going through a dry spell the likes of which she hadn't seen since she had braces in tenth grade. (And if her best friend was indeed doing _that fine specimen_ and not sharing the deets, then they were going to have a problem).

And that was another thing. Kinky details? Elena should have had hundreds of them, because one look at the guy was enough to figure out that he was a _monster_ between the sheets. All you had to do was look at his face, and his devious little smirk and know that he was freaky at the horizontal tango.

God, if Elena didn't start marking her territory soon, Caroline called dibs. (Who cares how many rules she was breaking, fucking _look at him_ ).

"I come baring gifts," Elijah said, looking around the apartment but forget that because holy fuck, _the accent_.

The gifts that he mentioned meant food, apparently – and it beckoned. Despite feeling slightly shell shocked by her best friend's apparent gold medallist worthy talent of finding men, Caroline's keen sense of all thins sugary meant that she was up in a second (wobbling dizzy for another while she fought to find her footing) and her sliding towards the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"Elijah, this is Caroline. Caroline – Elijah." Elena introduced them both.

Caroline pushed her hand out, though whether she was going for the handshake or the brown paper bag of food that sung to her empty stomach was anyone's guess. (Elijah guessed it was a handshake, but quickly followed that with the pastries – thank _Christ._ )

"Elena's told me a lot about you," Elijah said, smiling at her. His smile wasn't very wide, but his eyes were crinkling at the sides and Caroline figured that meant he was sincere enough. (She would have looked to Elena for confirmation if Elena was gazing up at him like the best thing since sliced bread – which, hello, was there ever any completion? Again. _Look at him._ )

Caroline nodded her head and tried to sound casual when she replied. "Likewise actually." His brow went up and she didn't even take a second to explain. "Good things, though, don't worry."

Elijah smiled – wider this time, and _holy Jesus._ "Good," he said warmly, reaching down and taking Elena's hand.

Caroline stuffed the pastry into her mouth, so that she didn't accidentally squeal in delight.

"If that's bad, by the way, blame Klaus. He's the one who chose them, I had no choice in the matter." He gestured towards the pastry, already half devoured.

Elena giggled and moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into him. "And if they're good?"

Elijah smirked again. "Well then, you're very welcome. The decision was all mine."

Caroline, who was a little bit distracted by the _heavenly_ pastry that was practically melting in her mouth, caught up with the conversation then.

"Hang on." She said, frowning a little into her next bite. "Who's Klaus?" (She waited until she stopped chewing, she wasn't some sort of _heathen_ ).

Elena frowned slightly. "I've mentioned Klaus before?" It was more of a question than a statement, and even if it hadn't been Caroline was pretty sure she would have remembered talking about a guy named _Klaus._ Because, you know, what _century_ was this?

"Nope." Caroline said, popping the 'p'. And could she just say that the sweetness of the pastry she was eating was like a fucking orgasm in her mouth. It took all she had to reign in the sex groans that she would have let out if it had only been Elena and herself (come now Caroline, there was a man present).

"Klaus is my brother." (And seriously? What was it with this family and old-timey names?) "He's in town for a little bit, wanted to come meet Elena." This seemed to remind him of something, because he then turned to Elena. "I wanted to ask you, by the way – he's not got much to do this weekend, so I offered to show him some of the sights. Did you guys want to come along? – After all, you're far more local than I am."

Oh right. Did Caroline mention that in addition to everything else, Elijah was six kinds of British? _Hot._

But still, this was supposed to be the 'briefly meet the boyfriend day, but mostly look after Caroline and let her bitch about her shitty, shitty job' day – not 'follow the lovebirds around town and awkwardly third and fourth wheel with his dorky younger brother' day.

Caroline was seconds away from sending Elena the secret 'please bow out for me' look, when their front door pushed open again. (Well, a solid tap on a door that wasn't fully closed, meant that it swung open regardless of intent).

The rest all happened very quickly.

(Caroline's senses were assaulted by the vision of Sir. _Sex on Legs_ with amazing curls on his head and holy _shit_ were those dimples and _Jesus Christ_ look at the way his shirt hung on to him and _good lord in heaven_ look at those arms. And hands. And the jeans he was wearing. And the dimples. Again. Because fucking _dimples_ ).

"I paid the cabbie extra to stay down there for fifteen minutes," Mr. bang me now vigorously if you please, said stepping inside. "Do we have a plan?"

_Hot damn._

Caroline shot a bright smile at Elijah.

"We'd _love_ to show you New York."

\\\

Half an hour later, crammed into the small cab, Caroline was marvelling – both over the incredible good looks of the man sitting beside her, and her craftiness and sitting next to him so that she would have to be pressed up against him while they were stuck in New York traffic.

(Oh yeah. She could feel the heat from his leg on her leg.)

She shook herself a little bit. (Like she said. _Dry spell_ ).

Elijah was driving shotgun, up in the front next to the cabbie. Ordinarily they wouldn't have been allowed to sit anyone there, but Caroline saw the flash of green leave Elijah's hand and enter the driver's. Under different circumstances, Caroline assumed Elijah might have let Elena ride up front – some sort of sense of chivalry or something – but this was still a _New York cab,_ no matter how much money was subtly exchanged.

But the point was. Look at Elijah, sitting in the front of the cab, making awkward conversation with the driver where he could.

If Elijah was good looking, then there really weren't words to describe his little brother.

Hell, Caroline felt kind of like she'd _sinned_ just by calling him dorky in her rather errant mental jargon. What had initially been 'find any way to avoid hanging out with the perfect boyfriend and the dweeby brother' was suddenly 'find any way to stick with super amazing ridiculous hot young brother (with perfect hair and perfect face and the _butt,_ _good lord the ass_ on that man) as long as fucking possible and try like crazy not to drool'.

And it was fucking _difficult._

Now that she'd had some time to put a handle of the observations that had initially come in a bit like a siren (settle down ovaries, stay cool knees, _don't fucking_ _quiver loins_ ) there was nothing she could say in the negative when referring to this guy. (And remember, his name was _Klaus,_ guys so that was fucking saying something – when you're _this_ attracted to a guy named _Klaus_ , there's got to be a name good reason for it, you know? Especially if you met him literally half an hour ago).

Not only were his dimples the greatest thing God had ever thought to invent, but his hair was just begging to be played with. ( _On top of that,_ Caroline was willing to bet her left boob that the jeans he was wearing were designer. And her left boob was her good boob, so that was saying something as well).

For the moment, he was finishing the half of the pastry that Caroline had reluctantly pulled off hers (she'd avoided all areas that she's already chewed into, but he just kind of smirked when she held it out to him).

And somehow, somewhere, the bastard had learnt how to eat a pastry _seductively_. (It was probably a British thing, right?)

It took Caroline so off guard that she couldn't stop tapping her fake nails, (she was in the fashion industry, people – the nails are as essential as the clothes, really) against each other – a noise that she knew was only allowed to continue because Elena hadn't heard it over the radio yet.

The point was that Caroline was fighting tooth and nail with her own conscience, to not lean over and maul the guy right then and there.

And Caroline was ordinarily a quite demure young lady, so she really needed to reign in the hormones.

Conversation. Words, _any words_ , would help at this point.

"So," she said suddenly, deciding impulsively to try and help herself. "You're moving over here from England as well?"

Elena had already explained to Caroline why Elijah was living here. As well as being blessed by the fucking genetics fairy, and being born in the country with the best accent ever, it turned out that the Mikaelson's were fucking _loaded_ (which could explain the old fashioned names, because everyone knew that rich Brits got away with everything) and their family company pretty much spanned across most of Britain.

And what do you do when you've filled up your own country?

Obviously, you send your eldest son across the seas, the pioneer the new world with their new source of renewable energy. The good ol' US of A.

And if their sales pitch was presented anything like the way they presented themselves, then yeah. Cut Caroline a slice of that apple pie. They'd be ruling this country in no time.

But that was Elijah. Elena certainly hadn't mentioned Elijah and his brother coming over here to seduce and conquer.

That was probably because, as became apparent with Klaus's answer, he wasn't here for that purpose.

"I'm just here to get a lay of the land, report back on how Elijah's done setting everything up." Klaus said, _fucking licking the remains of the pastry from his fucking fingertips._ "The intent was to show the company to broader horizons. Anyone in the energy game needs to be connected to your fair country in some way or another – this is where most of the new developments are coming from. Expansion was just the next step."

Good lord his voice.

Focus, woman. _Jesus._

Caroline blinked for a second, and then refocused her attentions. She had actually been listening this time, and she did have some actual questions. Unfortunately, she was having some issues putting all the words together.

"Are any of your other siblings heading over here?" Elena asked, unknowingly saving Caroline's ass (goddamn, she knew there was a reason she liked that girl). And, her question spurred on Caroline's.

"Wait, there are _more_ of you?"

Looking back at the wording, Caroline couldn't really question the confused/amused look that she got from him then. Of course, in her own mind, the 'you' in her sentence had meant 'genetically blessed by fucking Aphrodite with a voice that could make any woman's panties cement themselves to the ground'. Instead of explaining that to him at his questioning look, however, she just blushed a little.

"I mean, you have more siblings?"

Klaus still looked amused, but he seemed satisfied with that answer. The only thing she got in response for a moment was his annoying little smirk. Then, "yeah, there are three more of us. Two more brothers and a sister." Then he turned his head to Elena. "For the moment, they're only sending me out to check up on Elijah."

It was only because of the angle that Caroline was sitting at—behind the driver and diagonally opposite Elijah—that she could see the small smirk that formed on Elijah's face at this point. There was apparently more to this than Klaus was letting on—and usually she wouldn't mind asking, but come on, she met them half an hour ago.

But then Klaus caught the smirk and Caroline realised that she wouldn't have to wait to ask later.

Thankfully though, his smirk wasn't indicative of some anger or tension. Instead, the corners of his lips quirked upwards and he seemed to be laughing at his own little joke. Yeah, that was going to get annoying. His smirk was different to Elijah's—where Elijah smiled as though he knew something, Klaus smirked as though he knew something, and he knew what to do with it. It was more calculated, more tested, and damn intriguing.

"What's so funny?" Caroline asked before she could even think about holding it in.

Klaus turned his smirk to her, and Caroline was grateful she was sitting down because he knees just weren't fucking working, and had she been standing, she probably would have actually swooned. How _humiliating._

"Maybe it's just that Elijah's never needed 'checking up on'." Klaus said to her. "I'm here because they didn't want me over there."

And that is just way too fucking loaded for ten o'clock Saturday morning for Caroline to even think about asking more. Instead, Elena tactfully shifted the conversation to the city, and asked what Klaus was the most interested to see.

Caroline may have just been imagining it – but she's pretty sure his eyes lingered on her for a moment, before her turned to answer Elena's question.

\\\

"It appears the sweet young couple have left us to fend for ourselves." Klaus said to Caroline as they walked around the top viewing platform of the Empire State Building.

Sure enough, Beauty and the other Beauty had veered away from the other two, heading over to the windows on the other side, to embrace each other lovingly and make Caroline hate herself a little bit. But she also had to admire them. They'd already done the Statue of Liberty, and had lunch in Central Park without ignoring the other two – their determination to make Klaus and Caroline feel included had to be commended.

But their sudden solitude also left Caroline a whole lot defenceless, without Elena to act as a buffer for her stupid questions.

"Looks like," Caroline agreed, making an effort to stand next to Klaus, no matter how much she wanted to walk behind him for an chance to look at his, well, _behind._

Klaus hmm'd thoughtfully, leaving the silence there, and that wouldn't work because before long Caroline was sure to put her foot in it.

"So where are you staying?" Caroline asked quickly. It had become relatively clear that Elijah's relationship with his little brother was similar to Elena's relationship with Caroline. The brunette couple were both level headed individuals, who seemed to take it as a given that either of the blondes would do something childish soon. (Okay, sure there were solid reasons for their concern, but honestly, Caroline was more worried she'd do something a little too R-rated to be classified as childish with the younger Brit walking beside her).

"A hotel just near Times Square." Klaus replied. "I won't be here for long, I don't think, and Elijah and I handle each other better with a little distance. Besides, I like hotels."

He had his hands held behind his back, in a way that made the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other look seductive. (Which wasn't technically possible, _right_?)

"Helps if you don't have a budget." Caroline said – because again, they were stacked right. Cash up to their assholes, apparently (and actual royalty, as it turned out –

The driver had turned to look at both of them, a new shine of interest in his eye.

"Twenty five people would have to die before we came in line for the throne," Elijah tried to talk it down when Klaus had let the juicy little detail slip in the cab.

That distinction didn't worry Caroline. "Yeah, well I'd have to invade your country to be a princess, so I'm sufficiently impressed." She said.

Then Klaus had said something about marrying into the royal family and because being around him had suddenly made her revert back to a fourteen year old at a dance, she blushed like a ninth grader.

One of those memories where the details were best left forgotten, right?)

Ordinarily, Elena would have been scandalised that Caroline speak of money in such a way – the same way that her mother might have, if they were back in Mystic Falls. But as it was, Elena was busy being blissfully happy with her perfect man to hear, and it only make Klaus smirk.

He even chuckled a bit (which was also attractive, but _how_ ). "That could be a contributing factor."

Caroline flashed him her most charming of grins, hoping that maybe, _just fucking maybe_ she was impressing him a little. Probably not, but a girl could hope. Klaus kept his eye on her though – managing to fucking stare right into her soul with that perfect pair of baby blues.

"How do you like New York from above then, Niklaus?"

(Oh yeah, apparently Klaus wasn't even Klaus' real name. Klaus was a nickname that Elijah didn't believe in, apparently.

The point was that Klaus was in _improvement on the original_.

 _Chyeah._ )

Anyway, _Klaus_ , jerked out of whatever funk he'd fallen into, and blinked for a minute. Then he turned to face his brother.

"Is charming an appropriate answer?"

No, Caroline thought indignantly. Glorious, fantastic, awesome (as in: inspires awe) were all words that fit NYC. There were definitely a shitload better than _charming_.

On the other hand, it was undoubtedly British, and Caroline's hormones didn't seem to care about anything but that.

Abruptly, and totally randomly, he turned to face Caroline and Elena, where she'd walked up next to her friend.

"I'm very sorry ladies," he addressed them both. "But I'm going to have to cut this outing short. I need to head back to the hotel, I've got a bit of an evening planned."

Caroline felt her heart drop a little, before she internally kicked herself. She'd known the guy for a grand total of about five hours. And she didn't believe in soul mates or love at first sight. Therefore, she didn't believe in getting worked up over a guy who she'd met _that morning._

Still, Elena asked the question Caroline was dying to know the answer to.

"Ooh, hot date?" She giggled, glancing at Elijah, who let out one of his little smirks.

Klaus watched Elena evenly for a moment, before grinning. "Yes, actually."

(And yeah, Caroline's smile did vanish as quick as a fucking angel on cursed ground, and she did feel that stupid stomach dropping through your ass sensation, but she went on the internally deny it. Because, come on, she only felt remotely crushed that he'd called off their sightseeing tour because he needed to get home to prepare for a date. Honestly, he was pretty much the epitome of potential mate—god knows she'd have his babies, and _enjoy it—_ of course someone else got in there).

After all, if you're going to fall that hard, in that miniscule amount of time, it couldn't lead to a healthy relationship, right?

Klaus continued. "So if you don't mind?" He hadn't even finished speaking by the time he was walking confidently towards the elevator to take him back home.

So he was kind of an asshole. (The rose coloured glasses weren't that shady).

Caroline made a very strong mental note not to look at his ass as he walked away from her and if she immediately failed in that endeavour and got one last peak than she's only human for fucks sake, and she'd never tell.

 

* * *

 


	3. Chapter 3

— **two —**

* * *

Caroline didn't see Klaus again for the rest of his short visit to the States, and she was better for it. Her bimbo gene had climbed to extraordinary new height that day, as became suddenly clear with his departure (and the time to actually _think_ about what her mouth/brain was doing) and even thinking about it brought a weird taste to Caroline mouth and a humiliated curl in her stomach.

Of course, it was too late to go back and make any sort of better impression – and Caroline's tactic in the face of embarrassment?

Avoid, baby, avoid.

And sure, Elena and Elijah were still doing brilliantly by any and all standard (they didn't even fucking fight, and that was _weird_ right?) meaning that the occasions Caroline had to see her now _ex_ -roommate (don't be alarmed, Elena moved in with Elijah a couple of months into their relationship, compromising that Elena would leave the tiny apartment, Elijah would leave his _colossal_ one, and they'd share a medium sized one, with brick face walls and roof pool) were few and far between.

In fact, aside from a few fucking amazing works of her subconscious, the few times when her imagination was up to it and she was to horny to think about humiliation, Caroline hadn't given the younger Mikaelson brother much thought.

It had been almost a _year_ alright. Caroline had taken the dark patch of the day that she'd met him and moved the fuck on.

He was certainly the last thing on her mind that morning, when she rushed into the coffee shop, iPhone in hand and Elena's message still open on the screen.

_SOS. Meet me at our cafe – E_

And that was mind fuckery at it's best.

In the half hour it took Caroline to get out of work, jump on the subway, get downtown and to their cafe, hundreds of horrific scenarios had run through her mind. While Elena hadn't actually admitted anything (the _prude_ ) Caroline could always tell form the blush on Elena's face whenever the subject came up that Elijah lived up to Caroline's first expectations. He _was_ a kinky bastard, for all intents and purposes and while Caroline wasn't aware of the specifics (no matter how much she begged for details, dignity far, _far_ away) it wasn't like kinky sex was the safest sex. What if Elena had been hurt in some sort of weird dominatrix BDSM game, or if it had been taken too far and Elena had accidentally suffocated of strangled Elijah somehow? Caroline approved of their relationship sure, and she'd do anything for Elena if it came down to it – but was she really ready to go to jail?

And the crazy just kept coming from there, a string of questions that whizzed through Caroline's head at a million miles a second.

 _Holy shit, how long would she have to go to jail? Could she still preview the fall fashion line to Vogue from behind bars?_ Caroline had moved up in the world of fashion, and was now direct personal assistant to Ms. De Winters herself. _Would she get fired for going to jail, or would Eden think that it just gave her more street cred?_ Eden had insisted on being known by her first name. If that Miranda chick was the devil wearing Prada, then Eden was definitely the angel wearing Prada (or, alternatively, Louis Vuitton). _Would she be able to work from a cell? Would she have to share a cell with Elena, because honestly, Caroline would have to make some people her bitches in a place like that, and could she really have time to do that, her job and take care of Elena as well? Because, let's be honest, in a fight, Caroline could totally take Elena—but that would mean other people could too so Caroline would have to look after her and—holy fuck, do jail cells even get wifi?_

Understandably so, in light of her frantic panic, Caroline almost wet her pants with fury when she walked inside the cafe to see Elena sitting at their normal table, totally cool and calmly, right beside –

Was that _Bonnie?_

"Holy fucking Moses, you _bitches._ "

Both Bonnie and Elena looked suitably scandalised at her language and a mother hurried her child out of the shop, looking at Caroline furiously – but Caroline didn't give a shit. She stomped forward and dropped her heels (the heels that she'd pulled _off_ on the subway because she needed to run and she didn't want to ruin them) on the table.

Yup, that's right. Caroline was wearing no shoes.

Bare feet. She'd just run from the nearest subway stop to the cafe, without her shoes on – which is probably one of the stupidest things you can ever do in New York – all for the sake of emergency.

And they're chit-chatting.

"SOS, Elena?" Caroline said furiously, dropping into the chair and glaring at both her friends.

Elena looked at the shoes guiltily, while Bonnie immediately started telling Caroline how bad running around bare feet would have been if there'd been glass or a syringe on the ground.

"Do you have _any_ idea what I've been going through since your text message, Gilbert?" Caroline demanded.

"Sorry." Elena said, still looking guilty, but still smiling. "I should have been clearer."

Caroline was all ready to lay the verbal smack down for this (seriously, she had lied to Eden and said a personal emergency had come up, and she was like fifty percent sure that that skank Tamora was working on moving in on her job, _that very moment_ ), when Elena lifted her hand, and reached for the shoes, probably to move them from the table, or some shit.

She didn't get the chance.

Caroline grabbed her hand immediately, a death grip that kepts Elena firmly in place, and forgot all about her hypothetical stint in jail, the angry judgey mother, her stinging feet and Tamora.

Because there was a huge (mother fucking _giganemous_ ) fucking diamond.

And it was sitting on Elena's finger.

Her ring finger, to be exact.

\\\

Obviously, what followed was a series of screams that managed to sufficiently piss of every other patron in the small cafe, as well as probably the owner – and even a little claps just to emphasise how _fucking great_ this was. By the time Elena and Bonnie got her to shut up, Caroline had well and truly forgotten all her other issues.

(Well, except for Tamora. But that was a whole other thing).

Elena was getting married.

Elena was getting married to Prince Charming – Prince genetically enhanced, Prince totally fucking loaded, Prince polite, Prince fantastic fashion sense, and oh Caroline could go on.

And there were things to discuss.

"How did he do it?" Caroline asked immediately. "And when?"

Elena smiled down at the ring (seriously, that thing might eventually pull Elena's finger off with the gravitational pull it should have had), one of those simple smiles like everything was suddenly right in her life.

"Last night. We went for a walk in Central Park." Elena says. "He knows I don't like anything too fancy, so we had a picnic."

(Last night, here, obviously meant the late afternoon. No one was stupid enough to just hang out in the park with jewellery like _that_ after dark. But it's cool. Caroline knew what she meant).

"He just proposed – no fuss. Pulled the ring out of his pocket and said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me."

Not going to lie, Caroline kind of wants to kill Elena at his point.

Because that sounds like she's well and truly caught the perfect man and how is that fair on the rest of them? Luckily for Caroline, the bigger part of her is so fucking happy that she kind of wants to just keep screaming and let the whole city know that Elena Gilbert was officially going to be happy forever. (No more Salvatore bullshit, this was her fucking _fairytale_ ).

"So," Elena says, once they've calmed Caroline down a little bit. "We've already made a couple of the main decisions – but the details all need to be sorted."

Caroline pushed the shoes away from the table now (she'd put them back on later), put her bag down by them and then flattened her hands out on the table. She looked at Elena very seriously.

"Hit me." She said, ready to hear the ground rules before she could start her maid of honour-ly duties. (Also, this is totally why she should just carry around her wedding book at all times. She wasn't prepared and now she can't _take notes_ ).

(She was definitely the maid of honour, even if they hadn't yet had that conversation. Ever since the three of them had learnt that maid of honours were a thing – at the young age of eleven, when Elena's Aunt Jenna married their history high school teacher – they'd known they would encounter this problem. Three was easily divisible by two, as it was, so the plan had been made back then. Elena would be Bonnie's, Bonnie would be Caroline's and Caroline would be Elena's.

Smooth, simple as fuck and quite helpful in what could have been a potentially awkward situation).

"We're going to get married in England." Elena said quickly. "It's where his family is, and he has a lot of friends there – it's easier for me to ask you guys to fly over there. Plus, you know – his family has a castle and why would we pay for a venue when –?"

" – hold the fuck up," Caroline interrupted immediately. "Did you just say _castle?_ "

Bonnie laughed. "Well, looks like Caroline endorses the idea." And Caroline nods enthusiastically because sure a fuck fire she does. "When do you think you'll have the wedding?"

"Well, we were thinking the summer? Are you sure you're okay with this Bonnie? I'm not like, stealing your thunder?"

Bonnie scoffed.

" _Please,_ Elena." She laughed. "Jeremy and I have been married for four months now. The honey moon was _ages_ ago. There's no thunder to steal."

Elena smiled warmly and Caroline grinned. Bonnie and Jeremy had their own simple ceremony in Mystic Falls in October. It had been getting cold, but the autumn had made sure the wedding photos looked fucking fantastic. Eden had let Caroline wear some of her own creations to the event, and Caroline had ended up stressing out about the dress for the two hours Elena was supposed to be using stopping Bonnie from getting cold feet.

Well, Caroline reasoned, she had to use the pep talk on someone, since both Bonnie and Jeremy's feet were toasty warm.

The wedding had gone brilliantly, more than just the lovely service and the two freaking perfect wedding album. Caroline may have had to endure the awkward walk down the aisle with Matt Donovan, who was still making mooneyes at Elena – who had brought Elijah as her plus one, pretty much ensuring that every and all males present didn't get within three feet of her unless they absolutely had to), but it only meant that she got to talking with him more closely.

And Matt had mentioned how their mutual friend from high school, Tyler Lockwood, was also living in New York at the time.

Now, Caroline may have been the only woman sitting at the table without a ring to show for it, but with almost four months under their belt, she and Tyler were doing fairly well. Their initial reunion had been awkward (Matt had set it up sort of like an ambush, without notifying either of them) but it had worked out for the best in the end.

(If only Matt were as good at finding dates for himself, as he was finding them for other people. Maybe then he would get the fuck over Elena. (They hadn't dated since _eighth grade,_ man. Fucking _buy a clue_ if you have to).

So while Bonnie and Jeremy had been holidaying in Thailand, riding elephants (and doing a fair share of their own kind of riding, if you know what I mean), and Elena and Elijah had been enjoying their new shared apartment – Caroline had been doing the awkward dance around with Tyler.

But at this very moment, Caroline had more important things to worry about than figuring out whether or not she'd moved too fast moving in with Tyler.

"Go back to the bit about the _castle._ " Caroline ordered.

Caroline was definitely a bit offended when they laughed at this, and instead moved on.

"So I was thinking maybe July? Elijah says that the weather in Europe has a tendency to be a bit unpredictable, and I want out chances to be as good as possible. And the summers over there don't ever get past about eighty degrees, so it won't be too hot." Elena said.

Caroline took a deep breath, and fanned herself a little bit. "Jesus Christ," she sighed. "You're have a _European_ wedding in a _castle_. This is the greatest thing I've ever heard – oh, god, I need a drink."

Since it was only about eleven o'clock in the middle of a Wednesday morning, Caroline elected to stay away from the alcohol and instead order a coffee to sooth her excitement (which, you know, was stupid, since caffeine was an upper, not a downer, so if anything, it would only make her more excited). Whatever, Caroline just wanted something to do with her hands, so that she wouldn't start writing notes on the napkins.

Or, fuck that, Caroline thought, as she whipped out a napkin from under Bonnie's drink. She pulled out a pen from her pocket (she is an assistant, you guys, having a pen on her person at all times is a job requirement) and ordered from the bored-looking waitress (who had the fucking audacity to fucking _stroll_ over to the table and then look annoyed when Caroline ordered her mocha latte with extra sugar and cinnamon, even though it was barely even lunch time, and the skanky bitch couldn't have been working more than an hour) and began to write her bullet points.

"What have you got so far?" Elena asked.

"A shitload of fucking sass from that bitch of a blonde waitress over there." Caroline said evenly, smirking as she caught her friend's eye. "And a bit of a headache."

Elena laughed, and Caroline leant back, considering her.

"Do you have idea for a dress?"

It was a stupid question. Every woman in the entire world had an idea of a wedding dress. Even if they were inherently against marriage as an institution, bet was that they'd imagined a potential dress just once in their lives. But Caroline was glad to see a small smile creep only Elena's face—the shy smile of a woman who knows exactly the type of dress they want to get married in.

"Tell me," Caroline ordered immediately.

Elena smiled widely, and even leant forward a little in her chair. "There is this dress by Elie Saab that I _love_ but I think its way out of my price range."

Caroline considered her dryly. "You're hitching your wagon to an aristocrat, Elena. You've got the budget."

Elena shook her head. "No. I want to pay for my own wedding dress. It's _my_ wedding dress, you know?" she then paused, "and he's not aristocracy."

"I heard their family has a title," Bonnie said dryly.

Elena frowned. "From who?"

Bonnie looked pointedly across the table, and Elena turned her exasperated gaze to Caroline, who immediately threw her hands up in defence. "So I elaborated a little—sue me—they could be _royalty_ one day, Elena. It really wasn't that much of a stretch."

"Half of England would have to die for that to happen, Care!"

Caroline shrugged. "That could easily happen."

Elena rolled her eyes.

Bonnie laughed for another moment before refocusing all of their attention. "Tell us more about this dress." Bonnie said.

And Elena did. Elie Saab was a Lebanese fashion designer, who's dresses were slowly becoming more and more popular. While they could have initially been bought for next to nothing, they now went for thousands of dollars all around the world. Hundreds of people fought tooth and nail for a dress by him, and shitloads got nothing for all the effort.

But Caroline had connections, and those hundreds of people didn't have maid of honours who worked side by side with Eden de Winters. Caroline was sure she could pull some strings from now and get this dress for Elena. She'd have to get a photo, of course, but she could totally take care of that. Caroline decided not to tell Elena though, just in case it fell through. Instead, she smiled lightly at her glowing friend. "We'll get you that dress, or something better, Elena."

Bonnie nodded her head vehemently.

Elena smiled. "You're both such good friends, you guys. I miss seeing you every day—it's been weird since I moved out, Caroline." She said, before turning to Bonnie. "And it's been weird ever since we moved away."

Bonnie smiled brightly. "We're growing up, you guys. And that's a really good thing." She let her hand rest on Elena's—and her smile grew. "I am so happy for you Elena."

Caroline rested her hand on Elena's other hand—feeling the distinct diamond beneath her palm. "We both are, Elena. We're going to make this wedding perfect."

Elena's smile morphed into a bright grin and she sat up straighter. "That reminds me. I should make it official. Caroline Forbes, will you be my Maid of Honour?"

Caroline nodded her head firmly. "Hells yes, I will." She said loudly. "I will be the more organised, greatest maid of honour in the history of honourable maids." There was a short pause. "Now, where the hell is that skank with my latte?"

 

* * *

 


	4. Chapter 4

— **three —**

* * *

"No," Caroline said into the receiver. "I don't think you understand what _I'm_ telling _you._ "

She wasn't so much stressed this evening as she was tired. Exhausted, was a good word for it. She'd spent most of the morning sorting out the final RSVPs to the engagement party that was on tonight—and too little time on her work, so she was staying after hours at work to finalise the sketch transfer and the timings for the meeting with Vogue. To make things worse, the restaurant had called a little under fifteen minutes ago, and was insisting she got her numbers wrong.

Hello. Twelve people would be attending the dinner. It wasn't a difficult number to keep in her mind, which is why she would have no problem with fucking suing this restaurant if this guy didn't understand what she was saying.

"You need to find the extra two chairs." Caroline ordered. "And you need to quit bothering me about this."

To make matters worse, Eden was still in her office, only metres away. While Caroline was technically off hours, Eden didn't approve of using the company phones for personal calls, and she wouldn't be happy to hear that Caroline was talking to a restaurant from the office.

"Your booking form says that you only booked a table for ten. I'm sure you understand why I can't—"

"What I understand is that you're not a complete moron. The tables at your place are huge, and it's not like it's a fucking marathon or anything. You need to move to two chairs." Caroline wasn't sure if she sounded more threatening, or more fucking insane. Either way, she was hoping it didn't make her sound pathetic.

"Ma'am, that is not an option."

"Well why the fuck not? Its two freaking chairs. If it's that much of a problem, we'll bring two of our own. The party is tonight, for fucks sake. In two hours, actually. I do not have time for this."

Her voice raised a little at the end, and she glanced nervously at Eden's closed door. There was no out of the ordinary movement on that end, and Caroline sighed in relief before refocusing her attention on the idiot at the other end of the phone.

"Our records tell us that you have only booked a table for ten." The asshat said.

"Well, _I fucking paid for twelve_." Caroline snarled into the phone.

There came an impatient sigh to her ear, and Caroline almost fucking punched a hole through her computer. "Ma'am, there is no need to be so rude, I am simply telling you—"

"—okay, number one, stop calling me _ma'am_ before I come down there and show you how fucking professional I can be. And number two, I would like for you to take you 'straight man pretending to be gay so you can talk your way into pervy conversations with the waitresses' act and shove it up your ass, before you tell me exactly why you can't be fucked to move a couple of chairs."

Now _garcon_ seemed a bit miffed. "Well frankly, madam, this isn't a McDonald's joint. If you want to have twelve people at your table, then you need to pay for twelve people."

Caroline broke the lead sketching pencil in her hand. Dropping the two fragments of the wood, she ground her teeth.

"I paid one hundred and twenty seven dollars for this booking, and you've already got my fucking money." (They did, because she spent another three hours yesterday on the phone to some other twat from the same fucking restaurant before she had to go down to the restaurant and leave them with the cash). "Why don't you tell me how much it costs for twelve fucking people."

It appeared that she'd caught junkless on the back foot and he spluttered for a bit before finally stammering out a response. "Well, Ma'am—"

"Call me ma'am again. I dare you."

"Uhm, ah, sorry, I uh— _Miss_ , that is the right amount for twelve people but you'll have to give me a minute to look up the—"

"You better be fucking kidding me."

"I am very sorry Miss, for the confusion, but it says that you've overpaid for a booking of ten. I can give you back the money if you come in, or—"

"—OR YOU CAN MOVE THE TWO FUCKING CHAIRS."

"Miss, that isn't going to be an option in this case, because—"

"You need to listen to me, buddy," Caroline snarled. "You know the people who are having this party? It's my best friend, and she's about to get married to the fucking equivalent of Bill fucking Gates, only he's from England, and in the line for royalty. Picture Prince William, but better looking and taller. If you don't get _someone_ to move those fucking chairs, I'm going to get him to hire a fucking assassin and come over there and—"

There was a clearing of her throat from behind her and Caroline froze.

Mayday

May- _fucking-day._

"Please hold _._ "

Caroline slammed the receiver down on the hold button and turned to guiltily face her boss.

Eden de Winter's was a posh lady. Her hair was always impeccable, her style was the most amazing thing since Chanel, she only used environmentally friendly fabrics and designs and her shoes were the greatest things ever invented. She had a kind face, a nice smile and was great with people. She liked her employees, and she seemed to like working with Caroline, which was definitely a good thing – she didn't like Tamora so fucking _there_.

She also seemed a little amused to have found Caroline cursing like a sailor down into a phone.

Obviously, Caroline immediately covered all bases.

"If you're going to fire me you should know up front that you'll be ruining my life as I know it." She says straight away, the words a jumbled mess of too fast syllables.

Eden raised a delicate brow.

Caroline explained.

"I'm the only one of my friends who isn't engaged or married—and am apparently also dating a four year old which means he's never going to propose which means it's very likely that he'll knock me up and then refuse to acknowledge me. Then I'll obviously go through a tough month of deciding whether or not to get an abortion, then make the tough decision, but get talked out of it by all the pro-lifers who tell me that my baby has fingernails, won't be able to afford it because you fired me and then I'll cry and have to live alone on the streets of New York with a baby to raise and none of my dignity left."

She leaves a pregnant (lol) pause, during which Eden just watches her.

"Also, my best friend just asked me to be her maid of honour, while she gets married in England. In a castle." She finished lamely, and awaited the verdict.

Eden blinked a couple more times before saying anything, but when she did, Caroline's heart stopped.

"You are truly one of the most interesting people that I have ever worked with." She said, looking at Caroline like she was one of her sketches. She blinked again. "I assume that the call you were just making is in no way related to me?"

Caroline quickly shook her head. "No, Ma'am." (If that twat on the other end of the line had heard that, she may just have to put a bullet in her brain).

"And neither my company or I will be in any way liable if this turns into something bigger?"

Again, Caroline shook her head. "Definitely not."

Eden was silent for another moment before smiling slightly. "Then by all means," she motioned to the phone. "Don't let me disturb you."

About to wet her fucking pants, Caroline spun back around in the chair and only hesitated twice in reaching for the phone. When she did pull it back to her ear, she was glad to hear the dial tone that told her the waiter was still on the other line. Nervously, she pinged him back.

"Hello?" she heard a tentative answer.

(Oh yeah, she's still got it. If Eden hadn't arrived to be a witness, she would have had him shat in his pants, still at work in his waiter costume).

"Sir," Caroline said politely into the receiver, ignoring the soft exhale that sounded exactly like a delicate laugh from her boss in the other room. "I apologise for overreacting. If you could please organise the extra chairs, I would be very grateful." She leaves out the 'if not' that would have customarily been inserted here, as well as the threats, because he's already been warned off the consequences. "The party will be arriving at seven o'clock sharp. I hope everything is in order by then." She pauses, about to hang up, before she inserts a quick finale. "Thank you for your help."

She hangs up, takes a deep breath, and turns back around to face her boss.

"I'm sorry about that, Ms. De Winter." She said quickly.

Eden rolled her eyes. "Don't call me that." She said. "I don't like being Ms. De Winter almost as much as you dislike being called ma'am."

Oh. Okay. Whoops.

Apparently she _had_ heard that.

"What was the problem anyway?" Eden asked demurely. (Jesus, the _class_ on this woman was exponential. It was like when she'd been born, she'd stepped out of her mum's open legs and politely asked for a towel to clean herself off, and then some fabric to design herself a four thousand dollar baby dress).

Caroline swallowed. "I've been asked to plan my friend's wedding." She said.

Eden smirked. "I heard. In a castle, you said."

Caroline flushed. Her inability to control her word vomit was something she really needed to fix. Maybe she could see a therapist and pay for it using her medical from work.

"Uhm, yes." Caroline said awkwardly. "And I've been planning the engagement party since I found out. There are only twelve people coming, and the restaurant still managed to f—mess it up."

Eden smirked again recognising Caroline's slip up, but gave no other indication that she'd heard. Instead, she smiled. "If they don't have the two extra chairs you need when you get there, then all you need to do is discreetly tell the waiter that you've paid everything that you needed to, that it was an error on their part, and that if they don't get you the chairs, you'll claim you saw rats or cockroaches or something else unseemly that would greatly interest the Food Health and Safety Department."

There was a pause during which Caroline pondered how she hadn't noticed how fucking scary Eden was before this. The cute smile and the sweet eyes were apparently guarding the devious brain of an evil mastermind, and Caroline began to grin.

"Thank you." She said quickly.

Eden smiled. "No more personal calls from the work phone, Caroline." She said, standing and indicating that their conversation was over. "Your dinner is in an hour, and you need to go home and get ready."

Then she turned and walked away, her office door closing softly behind her.

\\\

Caroline found it relatively easy to make it home and change in time for the party. Tyler was out with his friends from work (he was interning for Fox Sports, the result of his father's connections and his flawless college football career) which he had been doing more and more these days – but also meant that she had the time to get ready without his hassling.

She pulled on a black dress that she'd bought for this very occasion – she'd taken it to work and gotten the seal of approval from some of the other girls she worked with (Tamora had said that it was too snug about the waist – the _bitch_ – but Caroline disregarded that as ass envy) – and some little black and silver shoes. She kept her hair down, pulling it back a little out of her eyes, and was just pulling her coat on when Tyler finally got home.

It took him less than five minutes to shower and pull on the suit she'd sorted out for him. Only once he was dressed and ready did she pause for a minute to pull him into her arm and press a kiss to his lips.

"Good day at work?" she checked, leaning into him. (He was big, with strong shoulders that probably shouldn't have made her feel protection – in the name of feminism and such – but totally did).

He nodded and kissed her again.

By the time Caroline did arrive at the restaurant, it was in Tyler's car and an extremely better mood. The dress that she had been worried wouldn't fit, was in fact a little looser than it used to be, which meant that the new diet she was on was working. Tyler had been extremely lovely to her the whole ride, telling her all about his friends from work and what they got up to, and the restaurant had called to apologise for their mistake, and had taken ten percent off the final price of the evening. All in all, when Tyler threw the keys to his car to the valet and Caroline looped her hand through the crook of his arm, she was in a good, positive, happy place.

This, of course, only got better when she entered the restaurant to see a practically glowing (not pregnant, Caroline had already checked to make sure this wasn't a kinky-sex related shot gun wedding) Elena attached at the hip to an equally happy looking Elijah, who was gazing dolefully at his to-be-bride.

They hadn't booked out the entire restaurant for the dinner, just one of the back function rooms. So when Elena squealed and hugged Caroline, a lot of the other patrons turned to see what the commotion was about. The two quietened down and instead grinned brightly at each other, pulling back from the hug.

"Thank you _so much¸_ Caroline." Elena gushed.

"Do not even worry about it," Caroline replied earnestly. "All it took was a little of physical threats down the phone, and a helluva lot of name dropping." Elena frowned, and Caroline grinned. "I didn't even mention your name or Elijah's. All I had to do was _insinuate_ that you were pretty much marrying a better, younger, more badass version of Bill Gates and they were cool." Caroline turned to consider Elijah for a moment. "I may have also mentioned Prince William."

Elena shoved her a little, but her grin didn't dim in the slightest.

Elijah and Tyler shook hands, having already met each other at the numerous other functions that the girls had dragged them both to over the past few months. (Elijah was better it, since he'd had more practice, but she and Tyler had only been dating three months, so that was fair). Then they swapped, and Tyler leaned in to kiss Elena's cheek, while Elijah did the same to Caroline.

"Always a pleasure," Elijah greeted her with a smile. "Some of the other guests have arrived, but we thought it best that they head further inside. Would you like to follow them?"

Caroline smiled and nodded, leaning back and taking Tyler's arm again."How many people are we waiting on?" If her clock was right (and it was) then the others still had a good five minutes to show up before they were late, but Caroline liked to know what she was dealing with.

"Just my brother and his wife," Elijah said. "And Elena's brother and his wife called to say that would be late because of traffic. Everyone else has been very prompt."

Caroline frowned, really _not_ thinking about the brother and wife comment. Even if she knew that the brother he was talking about wasn't the one she was interested in knowing about, she couldn't have helped the slight nervousness that erupted in her stomach.

Oh right. Klaus was here

You remember, the guy she acted like a total Barbie in front of the last time? Before he'd left to go on a date?

She hadn't given much thought to Klaus at all in the time that Elena and Elijah were dating, other than to physically cringe every time he brushed into her consciousness, but the marriage brought up a very good point. Klaus was inclusive in the Elejah (of course Caroline gave them a couple name. She was still having problems with her and Tyler though. Tyroline sounded like fucking medication for the clinically insane and Caler sounded like the name a celebrity would give their child—and she was not going with Caroller. No fucking way.) package, and Caroline's avoid tactic wasn't going to work.

But hey, at least she had a date. She had been in charge of numbers, and if there was a vicarious thrill that ran through her seeing that he would be dining alone then she would take it to the grave.

"How far out is Bonnie?" she asked, instead of voicing the sudden swamp of neuroses that was drowning her brain.

"Apparently they haven't mastered the art of catching a cab," Elijah explained, and for a minute Caroline had to think back to what she'd been saying. Oh, right. Beremy (Oh please, Jeremonnie? Really?).

Whatever. If Bonnie and Jeremy hadn't arrived yet, and they were still waiting on the other brother and his wife, then there were still introductions to be made before dinner started. In addition to Klaus, who'd returned to the States for the festivities, two of Elijah's brothers had also been able to fly in from London for the engagement party. His parents and his sister hadn't been able, something about the company projections, but Elijah didn't seem to mind. Instead, he seemed happy that Kol and Finn were coming, and that Finn was bringing Sage. (Again, the names in this family were so fucked up that being as rich as J. K. Rowling almost didn't excuse them).

"We better go get our charming on then." Caroline grinned. She glanced at Elena. "Jenna and Rick inside?" Elena nodded warmly and Caroline's smile widened. "Good. _Allies._ "

Both Elena and Elijah laughed (hah, she'd really not been joking) as she and Tyler walked past, and into the function room. It was a small, plain room ordinarily, with a black and red theme that made it look more like a strip club than anything else. But Caroline had spruced it up, added some fairy lights on two opposing walls and requested the brighter lights that didn't make it look like you could get HIV from touching something. She'd left out the tacky signs or projector slide shows, and instead opted for a soft playlist of their combined favourite songs to be playing in the background.

Hell, if Eden wasn't such an incredible boss, Caroline could have gone into interior design.

But none of that mattered right now, because Klaus was standing right in front of her and goddammit, his butt looked as great as ever in the dressy dark jeans he was wearing, and his arms looked amazing in the dark blue button up.

Caroline tightened her grip on Tyler's arm, but smiled brightly. "Hi everyone!" She greeted them enthusiastically, glad that her voice sounded normal, and hoping she didn't come on like a crazy person. "How do you like the place?"

Jenna was on her nearly as quickly as Elena had been. Elena's aunt had always been the cool one. She'd even bought them booze once when they were fifteen, and she was just finishing college. The sudden death of Elena's parents had changed that, and she morphed into a responsible adult far quicker than she should have. But that didn't mean she still didn't occasionally act like she was actually just finishing off her thirtieth year.

She pulled Caroline into her arms so quickly that Caroline barely had time to drop Tyler's arm before he too was pulled into the embrace. Instead, while Caroline and Jenna squealed a bit, he leant forward and grasped the hand of Jenna's husband, and their old history teacher.

"Mr. Saltzman," he said, more out of habit, and a smile broke out onto the faces of both men. "I'm not sure what I should be calling you."

Mr. Saltzman, aka. Rick, chuckled. "Call me Alaric, if you want—but Rick is probably best. It's good to see you again Tyler."

Caroline shared a look with Jenna. It was common knowledge, to the two women at least, that Tyler hadn't liked Rick as a teacher, and Rick hadn't liked Tyler as a human being. Still, it was good that they were being civil.

"Have you met Elijah's brothers?" Rick asked, stepping back.

Caroline got hit full frontal by the slight smirk on Klaus' face before he stepped forward. "I'm afraid I've only met Miss Forbes, so I supposed introductions are in order." He jutted his hand out ahead of him, shaking Tyler's hand. "Klaus Mikaelson, Elijah's brother. And this is our other brother, Kol."

Caroline got a good look at Kol Mikaelson for two reasons. One, because looking at him meant that she wasn't looking at Klaus, who looked way too lustable to be good for a woman already involved, and two, because Kol was like a kind of thinner, different looking, younger version of Elijah. Kol too, was terrifying though it didn't seem to be in the same impending secretly a GOD in the sack kind of way, although she didn't doubt this Mikaelson one bit.

No, Kol seemed scary in a kind of crazy eyes kind of way. Like he had way too many hilarious jokes spinning around in his head, but there weren't any that he wanted to share.

"It's a pleasure," he said, his eyes sparkling as he stared right back at Caroline. He moved to shake Caroline's hand and then Tyler's, while Klaus moved towards her.

"It's good to see you again, Caroline." Klaus purred (no fucking joke, people – like a cat he fucking purred). "You're looking well." His eyes dipped to look at her for a mere second – nothing she could call him out on, but it felt like he could suddenly see right through her.

She smiled, despite the fact that she wanted to fall over a little. "Thank you. And it's good to see you too."

She held out her hand for him to shake, making up her mind and deciding that she could handle the physical contact. His hand slipped into hers and goose bumps crept up all over her body, while the touch sent a shock to her – oh holy fuck she was so screwed.

Not just because of the shock, either.

Because Klaus lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss there, while keeping his gaze heavily on hers and smiled.

 

* * *

 


	5. Chapter 5

— **four —**

* * *

When Elijah's final brother arrived, super attractive wife in tow, it really didn't have to be said that he too, looked to be carved of marble in some way. He had a pointed face, a mix between Elijah's face and Kol's—and Caroline noted that thus far, Klaus was the only blonde in the family. (Again, he had a weird ass name— _Finn —_ but as long as that didn't bother his wife—the stupidly drop dead gorgeous Sage—then Caroline really couldn't have any issue with it).

As though they'd planned it, the Mikaelson's spread themselves out around the table. Caroline was keen to avoid sitting near Klaus (mostly to save face, her humiliating first encounter with him more than enough embarrassment where he's concerned). Of course, Elijah was the safe option when it came to which brother to sit near. After all, he was clearly taken by her amazing best friend—and Caroline didn't have to worry about awkward stories coming back and Tyler getting word of them. But Elena was pretty keen to sit near Jeremy when he arrived—she hadn't seen him in months, near years. Next to Elijah, Finn was a safe choice, because his wife was clearly amazing and he didn't seem to have eyes for anyone else.

In the end, it was Caroline's indecision that killed her. By the time she decided that Kol was the best person to sit near, Jenna and Rick had slipped into the seats between him and Sage, and begun to discuss work. Leaving the only two available seats the two between Kol and his blonde older brother.

Klaus smirked at her. "There are some free seats over here?" He called out, straightening out his features and catching Tyler's attention.

Tyler looked happy for the invitation. A gentle hand at Caroline's back herded her towards the seats, and Tyler held out her chair for him. Of course, it was the one next to Klaus.

"It's good to see you again," she said with a gracious smile as she took her seat.

The god-damned son of a bitch smirked at her as he reached for the menu and leant back in the seat. He seemed content to just look at her smugly for now though, the bastard, but after a quick glance and Elena's glowing end of the table, Caroline managed to keep her vicious glare under control.

Tyler's hand settled on her knee and he leant forward, oblivious to everything else. "When did you guys meet?" He asked with one of those 'Carol-Lockwood-approved' smiles reserved for mayor's functions back at home, and whenever his boss decided to take the interns out to a bar (which, for a Sports Anchor, was quite often). "Caroline didn't tell me that she'd met any of Elijah's brothers."

He didn't sound accusing or anything, but Caroline still took a gulp of champagne before looking at him. "I've been a bit busy lately," she said as coolly as possible. "It must've slipped my mind."

(Massive lie. Huge.)

"I met him just the once, when Elena introduced me to Elijah for the first time." Caroline said briefly, happy to leave out the details.

(But come on, Caroline can't be expected to tell her new- _ish_ boyfriend about the super sexy British brother of the groom that she panted after for half a day. It was just not done).

Klaus smirked, and Caroline cringed. She hadn't exactly been subtle when they'd first met, had she? This was what she deserved. He seemed to recognise decorum though, at least a little, because he didn't like, _comment_ on that or anything.

Instead he nodded. "Caroline and Elena were nice enough to show us some of the sights of this fair city. But it's no surprise you didn't mention it – "

For a horrific moment, Caroline's stomach drops through her ass and she thinks _holy fuck this is it, this is the end._ He continues.

" – it was months ago. You must have been busy, planning all this. I know my brother's extremely grateful for all the work you've been doing—especially tonight." He gestures to the whole room with his champagne glass, appraising the soft atmosphere that Caroline had organised obsessively.

Caroline shrugged it off as she'd been doing with all the other thanks she's gotten this evening, while her heart slowed to a steadier tempo. Seriously, was it so hard to believe that she was going to make this whole marriage process six kinds of awesomesauce for her best friend?

"It was nothing," she said casually. "Elena's my best friend and she seems really happy with your brother."

Klaus glanced up the table to see what's going on with the rest of his family. Elena was laughing and she was clearing holding Elijah's hand under the table. Someone down that end had just told a joke, or something.

"Looks like they got the fun end of the table." Tyler said with a sarcastic laugh. His fingers tightened at Caroline's knee for a moment and he shot her a smile.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "What _ever_."

Tyler grinned.

Klaus shook his head. "Any table that Finn sits at automatically sucks the buzz from the room. Just you wait."

Sure enough, moments later Finn said something and the laughter soured slightly, while everyone else exchanged awkward looks. Tyler grinned, and leant across to actually _high five_ Klaus.

Because apparently Caroline was dating a fucking five year old.

Caroline laughed thinly and tried not to think about how hasn't she endured enough embarrassment in front of this guy, yet, for fuck's sake?

Neither Klaus nor Tyler seem to take not of her inner peril. Instead, they keep chatting like old friends.

"Got any siblings, Tyler?" Klaus asked, the smirk on his face doing funny things to Caroline's insides—which was pretty fucking annoying actually, because she was a good person (she paid all her taxes and she called her mother at least once a fortnight, dammit) and her boyfriend was sitting right the fuck there. How on earth could someone warrant a reaction like this. How was it even _fair?_

She reached for the red wine and filled her red wine glass to the top. If she noticed Klaus's smirk widen and his left eyebrow shoot up, she actively ignored it in favour of taking a deep gulp, preparing herself for the rest of the night.

\\\

Because Caroline's probably the most anal control freak you'll ever meet, the night went perfectly. The food was Italian—because who can go wrong there?—and the entrees were to freaking _die for_ followed by some pretty much orgasmic main courses (and yes, even if it was an official event Caroline maintained that the pizza was a fantastic idea because Elena had seen it and glowed some more).

Eventually, however, it was time for some speeches and Klaus rose to his feet. (He was the best man, you see, and Caroline didn't organise any speech specifically but Elijah asked him and Caroline was certainly not going to get in the middle of that).

Klaus grinned at them all, and Caroline squeezed Tyler's hand in hers a little tighter. (Enough for Tyler to flinch a bit, " _Jesus,_ care, what the hell?" he hissed).

"Friends, _countrymen,"_ Klaus began a bit grandly, even managing to make the lame introduction sound charming. (It's the accent, Caroline chanted to herself. Fucking English people). "My speeches always go best unplanned. You'll find I have a flair for the dramatic, and standing and stirring you with my words is a particular talent of mine. And yet, I felt that the engagement party of my eldest brother was an occasion that warranted perhaps a touch more attention."

A touch? Jesus, it was like his British lingo was shooting bullets of lust at her. And yeah, the shit metaphor was something Caroline had to acknowledge but excused because of, you know, the lust bullets.

"So I delved more closely into the specifics of good speech writing, specifically regarding weddings." He continued to narrate, while Caroline continued to glare.

"According to the internet," do they even have the internet in Britain, Jesus? "there are a few main rules to follow. First—a speech should never last longer than the speech giver does in bed."

"Sit down!" Kol ordered immediately, and Caroline was able to laugh at that, brushing off her concerns that Klaus had kind of looked at her when he mentioned bedroom stamina, the dirty bastard.

Klaus chuckled at his brother's comment. "I should tell you based on that," he continued slowly. "That you should get comfortable because you're going to be here for a _long time._ "

OKAY. That time he definitely fucking looked at her. Like, right down to her quivering loins type look and Jesus fuck her boyfriend is right the fuck _there._

Klaus just continued talking though.

"Second, a speech should at least reference the people who have made this evening possible. A big thank you to the lovely Caroline, who's planned this successful evening to perfection. I would like to personally thank everyone for coming out to celebrate with the family this evening, and apologise on my sister's behalf for not being able to make it." He looks to Elena. "Although, Miss Gilbert, you should know that our family gets a little chaotic at times. You've met most of us, but you may find Rebekah a deal breaker."

Elena grinned at him, and then set her hand on top of where Elijah's rested on the table. She ran her finger across the back of his hand and smiled sweetly at him, eyes only on her fiance.

"No, I really won't." She said. She paused for a moment (just to give Caroline time for her heart to explode in a combination of what Caroline reckons is pretty explicable jealousy and a whole lot of it, and incredible amounts of blinding happiness for her friend), and then turned back to Klaus.

Klaus was grinning at his brother and Elena, but he got right back into it.

"Well good, because that brings me to my third rule." He said. "I'm going to end it at the third rule, however, because while I have far more to say—"

"You always have something to say, brother." Kol called out again, and every laughed.

Klaus just raised his voice over his younger brother. "—I'll save it for the wedding, where I'm expected to give an infinitely more impressive speech. So finally, I've been told that a speech should acknowledge the bride and groom, because today marks the beginning of a new journey for them together." He wrinkled his nose. "It's a bit old fashioned for my taste—" pfft says the guy named _Klaus,_ "—but the message is the same. I know I speak for my whole family when I say that we are immensely proud to have Elena join our family, and we all look forward to seeing you around for a long time after this."

The romantic things this guy said had to be directly related to his country of origin. Maybe it was a 'shared the country with Shakespeare, bitch, you don't stand a chance with your original South Park and the Simpsons' thing.

Fuck.

He paused to lift his champagne to the air. Everyone followed his lead and grabbed their own. "And therefore," Klaus finished grandly, "I would like to raise a glass to my brother, who we are infinitely impressed with for finally growing the balls to ask this lovely creature to marry him."

He lifted his drink in a toast to Elijah, that his brother responded to with a hearty middle fingered salute.

/

After the speech, as parties always do, the evening turned far more casual. People began switching seats like they always did at functions like this, desperate to move around and talk to everyone. The result of this was that Caroline managed to find herself sitting between Elena and Bonnie, half discussing the coming plans and half distracted by the drinking game that Jeremy and Kol were playing. (Next to them, Rick was watching with this torn expression on his face, like his teacher ways were just desperate to put a stop to these shenanigans—then again, maybe he was just looking like that because Tyler had taken the seat next to him and was drunkenly explaining how to play gridiron to Klaus and Elijah—who were watching on in sort of serene amusement).

Finn and Sage had left early, begging out and it hadn't been a sore loss, in the end. All they had left were desserts and their absence wasn't obvious to anyone at all.

There was a loud whoop as Jeremy shot the coin into the cup and he pointed at Kol. The grin on Kol's face suggested that he was probably happier about losing than he would have been if there hadn't been an excuse to drink.

"That is the man I married," Bonnie said slowly, watching as Jeremy to tossed back a gulp of his wine, before laughing enthusiastically with Kol.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Don't complain. I share _blood_ with the guy."

"That just means you had no choice. That right there is the man I've decided to spend my life with."

Caroline risked a glance down the other end of the table and watched as Tyler made a particularly violent hand gesture that actually scared Aunt Jenna into screaming a little, and only served to make Klaus and Elijah smirk at him. She sighed.

"I think we should just focus on the fact that one out of three of us has good taste." She looked pointedly at Elena, who immediately blushed and smiled fondly. "When does your plane leave on Monday?"

"Eleven," Elena said with a smile. "I have two more days and then I am meeting his parents for the first time. It's exciting."

Even if she sounded equally as happy as she had a few moments ago, both Bonnie and Caroline could see the difference.

"I call bullshit." Caroline said.

When Elena sighs and looks to her hands, offering no objection, Caroline rolls her eyes and throws back her head because _seriously?_ Elena was worried about people liking her? Elena was probably the most well liked person on the entire planet, if she was honest with herself. How on earth could these people not like her?

"Come _on,_ Elena." Bonnie said, sounding just as surprised. "They'll love you. Everyone does."

Exactly what Caroline was thinking, just saying.

"Thanks guys," Elena said, nodding and smiling, even if it was a little less bright than a couple of moments ago.

Elijah, because he was actually Prince mother fucking Charming, appeared out of nowhere, like he knew he was required to do some wooing mojo. "Darling," he said softly, and another part of Caroline fell in love with the man. "Is everything alright?"

It was now, Caroline could see because as soon as Elijah's hand touched Elena's back, she practically lit up, like she was reminding herself exactly what she was getting out of this whole thing.

(Which, for those of you who haven't quite caught up yet, was the most perfect man on the entire face of the planet ever in history _ever_ ) — Caroline has a lot of feelings about Elijah Mikaelson, okay? In particular, how the fuck a person like him even exists because _how?_

"Dessert is coming out now." Elijah said. "You don't mind if I sit at the other end of the table, do you?"

Elena shook her head and laughed. "Course not."

She squeezed his hand before he moved away, and followed his movements back down the room with her eyes. Caroline glanced again at Tyler, where he was sitting with Klaus, now talking about tactics and such. She felt a rush of affection for him, sure, but she'd never felt about him the way she could see Elena felt about Elijah. Or even the way that Bonnie watched Jeremy—with a weird sort of annoyance, shadowed by incredulous love.

Ugh, what the fuck ever, she thought, refocusing on Elena.

"So you're leaving on the Monday after next, right? Have you decided whether you're coming back for a bit before the wedding or not?" Caroline got right back to the planning because this was where she fucking _lived_.

Elena and Elijah had decided on July nuptials, to be held in at the Mikaelson family estate in England. It was mid April already, so only two and a half months away but they hadn't wanted to wait and Elijah certainly had the resources to organise a wedding in that time.

Also, Caroline liked the fucking challenge.

Elena nodded. "I'll be coming back after two weeks, because I have work—but Elijah is still waiting to see. He's got work here and there, so we're not sure."

Caroline nods. "Cool. Just think how much sweeter the wedding will be if you haven't seen each other in a while."

Elena frowns. "I'm heading back over at the end of May, Car. I'll see him before the wedding. We're more worried about what we'll do with the apartment while we're away."

Caroline brushed that away. "I'll be coming over about a week after you, because Eden is pretty stressed about the fall line and I need to be here, but I'll definitely be there before the day of."

Elena smiled gratefully.

"As for the house, you could maybe rent it out? You'll be gone for two months, and you could always stay with me for the two weeks you'll be back?" Caroline offered.

Elena nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds good. I'll talk to Elijah about it first, but I'll let you know."

Dessert made an appearance then and suddenly they were all too distracted by the red velvet chocolate cake to talk for a couple of seconds. Caroline didn't know exactly what it meant for her life, but the cake was hands down the best thing about her day.

Tyler let out a whoop of excitement and then dropped some of his own cake down his front.

.

It continued to look that way, it seemed. Tyler managed to get himself relatively _smashed_ from the wine alone, which meant that her evening after the dinner wouldn't be nearly as nice as everyone else's.

Because she was suddenly dreading it, all too soon Elena was yawning and begging out (hah, actually Elena had yawned and tried to hide it and Elijah had seen and then very graciously ended the evening with a final toast to his bride, the fucker).

Sure enough, while Caroline was finishing up talking to the restaurant people and thanking them for what had ultimately been a lovely evening, Jeremy and Rick were trying to subtly manoeuvre Tyler through the restaurant without bringing too much attention to him.

Caroline nearly cried when she saw that they had hailed a cab for her as well, before remembering that they'd driven (why Tyler even owned a car was beyond her, but he always loved showing it off. It was a manual, which Caroline fucking despised, really loud and really heavy – and yeah, she immediately began to brainstorm ways to make sure he knew how fucking pissed she was when he woke up the next morning.

Cutting him off from sex should do the trick.

She was just getting the car from the valet, trying to explain to Rick and Jeremy that really, they should take the cab because they had to drive home anyway because it wasn't like she could leave the car at the restaurant, really stressed and ready to start yelling again (Tyler was still fucking talking about football) when there was a soft tap on her shoulder.

And goddamn, she really didn't need this.

Caroline had been too busy cussing at her delirious boyfriend to notice Klaus's approach. But he didn't seem to mind, his tap on her shoulder had been gentle and he pulled out of her personal space immediately to hold his hands behind his back. (Damn. She'd forgotten how attractive he'd made that pose look).

Klaus smirked at her. "I thought I'd tell you that I had a lovely time this evening, and I looked forward to seeing you again."

Caroline smiled thinly at the rat bastard. "Thanks. You too." And because she was too sarcastic for her own good, she kept going. "If you'll excuse me, I have to remember how to drive manual cars and figure out how to get Tyler into it."

She flushed again, because geez, way to sound like you're complaining about your life Caroline. She'd been working really hard on not whining about her life but sometimes it was hard, in moments like this, and she would have really preferred that Klaus wasn't here to witness it.

But then. Because the world hated her.

"I'll drive the car home, if you like." He offered. "I have a particular proclivity for American automobiles."

And what the _fuck? Who talked like that?_

Caroline frowned. "You know how to?"

Klaus chuckled. "Clutch first, love," he said. "It's the same in most countries, even if you heathens drive on the wrong side of the road."

Caroline gaped at him. The valet held out the car keys and before she could do anything, Klaus took them from him. "You just give me the address and go take the taxi, love. Your boy looks like he's wanting for company."

Sure enough, Tyler was leaning out of the taxi, calling her name. People were looking at him like he was mentally deficient, which – if Caroline wasn't _dating him_ – she would have been doing too.

"Address?" Klaus said again.

It wasn't until she was in the cab, Tyler's snuggling his face into her lap and muttering some shit she had no idea about, that she managed to straighten out her thoughts. Her _boy?_ _Love?_

Who the fuck _was_ this guy?

\\\

On merit of the New York taxi drivers only, Caroline and Tyler arrived at her apartment long before Caroline saw any sign of the ostentatious car her boyfriend drove. She paid the driver relatively quickly, gave him a little extra to stay where he was and hold the car park space on the side of the road for Klaus when he arrived. Ordinarily, the car would be kept in an underground lot beneath their building, but it Tyler even thought about having a hissy fit about it, she'd fucking kill him.

She pulled Tyler out of the cab and set him down on the stairs to their building, pausing to breath for a second before she sighed and dumped herself right next to him.

Tyler snuggled up to her immediately, snaking his arms around her.

"You're a really great girlfriend, Care," he breathed hotly on her neck – the slurred words making it a little less romantic, but she'd take what she could get.

She patted his arm gently. "I know." She said simply.

Tyler huffed out a laugh at that. Because he'd dropped his head to rest on her shoulder, she could feel it as his lips pulled into a grin.

"Really though," he said again. "You were so out of my league in high school." Again, he kind of stumbled over the words – but he'd sobered up a bit in the taxi, having progressed to the deep and meaningful stage of drunk that sometimes made an appearance.

Caroline snorted. "You were too busy hooking up with Vicki Donovan to make an effort, Ty." She said softly.

He laughed again. "Yeah, but she was always around. It was easy."

Caroline tried not to feel vaguely disgusted but she couldn't help it when he face contorted a little bit. "Don't let Matt hear you say that." She said, for lack of anything else to say.

There was a pause, a careful silence during which Tyler just kind of breathed her in and Caroline tried not to be too angry at her whole life. She had a good job, she reminded herself. A great boss, a nice flat and a fair enough boyfriend who she liked. So what if some British guy showed up, all eloquent and gentlemanly? Klaus was an ideal that she was interested in until he became a real person. She made sure not to let herself forget about the horrific first time they'd met.

Tyler pushed a bit closer, closed his arms around her a little tighter.

"I'm going to miss you so much." He sighed.

It took Caroline a couple of seconds (she was caught up enough in her own head that she kind of just 'hmm'd' in response), but she frowned when the words finally registered.

"Wait, what?"

"Caroline!"

She jerked her head up to see that Klaus had arrived, had rolled down the window to get her attention. "Where do you want her?" He called.

Caroline pushed Tyler away from her to get off the stairs. "Here." She pointed to where the cab was. She ducked her head down, thanked the cabbie again before he drove off, leaving the space clear for Tyler's car.

Klaus parked quickly, in one smooth movement that Caroline thought was impossible in a manual car, and hopped out of the driver's seat.

"That is a wonderful car." He said, smirking again as he held the keys out to her.

Caroline smiled and tried not to feel too awkward about Tyler, who was asking out loud where Caroline had gone. "Thanks for that."

Klaus smiled. "No problem." He said with a small shrug. "I guess I'll be seeing you at the next wedding function." He said. He lifted a hand, waved at Tyler. "It was good meeting you." He called over, stopping Tyler's murmurs for a minute before they started up again. He looked back to Caroline.

"Good seeing you again, love." He said. "Must be off."

He smirked again (and really? _Really?_ ) before turning around and leaving her without another word, heading towards the road again to flag down a cab. Of course, he got the first one he saw, and just like that he was gone again.

Caroline scowled. She was getting really sick of watching that guy walk away from her.

 

* * *

 


	6. Chapter 6

— **five —**

 

* * *

 

The next sequence of events all happened very quickly. Caroline woke up early the next morning – a Saturday, why the fuck was she up? – which turned out to be a smart decision because she would have definitely missed her phone call if she'd been asleep.

As it was, she was standing in the kitchen, cooking some scrambled eggs and trying not to feel guilty for not having called her mother in a while when her phone started ringing.

It was Elena.

"It's the apartment." Elena said, sounding stressed. "It looks like we left it way too late to think about renting – Elijah looked at me like I was an idiot when I suggested it."

(Pah. As if).

"But I don't want to leave it empty for a month and a half, so I've got just over a week to try and find someone who'd be interested in apartment sitting. Do you know anyone?"

Caroline did in fact know a lot of people who were looking for easier apartments. There were some girls from her work who had a hell of a commute each morning – but if Caroline gave them this offer there was a chance they'd just refuse to fucking leave when the happy couple returned. And the others were all Tyler's friends – other people from Fox (interns, like Tyler mostly) who would be happy to stay in a gorgeous apartment like Elejah's for any amount of time.

But of course, they'd fucking trash it so they were also no goes.

So Caroline just made a negative sounding noise, and hoped that was enough expression for what she was thinking. "I'll ask around if you like? What are the dates again?"

Elena gave them to her (this coming Monday was the end of March, and Elena would be away until the very end of May) and Caroline wrote them down on a slip of paper, before sticking it to the fridge. She sighed and returned to her eggs, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder.

"If nothing comes up, I could always drop by every couple of days and make sure it looks lived in." Caroline offered.

It'd actually be a bitch, if she had to do that. Elena didn't live far away, but it wasn't like it was on the way from work to Caroline's apartment. It'd be a detour, time that she should have been fucking spending on the Autumn line sketches and talking with the Vogue people (who were bothering her so much they were practically up her ass at this point).

Still. There was the ho code to consider (damn they needed to think of a better name for that. The Sister List-er or something. The Chick-List?), and she _was_ the Maid of Honour.

"Feeling better about meeting the parents yet?" Caroline asked.

From Elena's ensuing silence, it was apparent that no. She didn't feel better.

Caroline sighed. "I swear it'll be fine, Elena. I think my mum wants to get rid of me and adopt you instead. Parents _love you_."

Elena made a nervous 'hmm'ing sound. Caroline pushed on.

"Just make sure you call them Mr and Mrs. Mikaelson the first three times you talk to them, no matter what they ask you to call them, and they'll love you."

"Did we get a cab home last night?"

Caroline turned around, very nearly losing the phone into the eggs in the process, to see Tyler was up. Still wearing just his boxers, his hair was a fucking mess and he looked exhausted. But also worried. And annoyed.

Oh right, the car.

"I gotta go, Lena." Caroline said into the phone, lifting up the fry pan and turning off the stove. Tyler was hung over enough that she could finish this before he had a hissy fit about his car.

Elena didn't seem to mind. "Call me if you hear anything about the apartment, okay?"

Caroline scooped the eggs onto the two plates and put the fry pan down. Pulling the phone away from her shoulder she nodded, even if Elena couldn't see it. "Sure."

Once she'd said goodbye and hung up, she turned back to see Tyler looking at her confusedly.

"Did you leave the car at the restaurant?"

He sounded scandalised, which was hilarious. She pushed his eggs towards him, the toast probably a bit cold now but he didn't notice (mostly because he didn't touch it, and kept staring at her).

"If I had it would have been your own damn fault," Caroline said, still a bit peeved about last night. "But as it is – no. Elijah's brother drove it back here for us."

She finished the story and left out all references to Klaus's unnatural ability to make her want to maul him spontaneously, monogamous commitment or not.

Sure enough, Tyler was pretty pissed that his car had been left on the curb all night.

Which, you know, was really fucking frustrating because he was the one who insisted that they drive, and then forget that you need to be _sober_ to drive home. Technically, Klaus shouldn't have even driven – she'd definitely seen him drinking a little bit last night – but the car was still in perfect condition, which it wouldn't have been if Caroline had been in charge of it, so she thought she'd done fairly well solving that problem.

Apparently not.

"You can't just leave a car like that on the _street,_ Caroline." Tyler said as soon as he figured it out. "People could steal it or scratch it, we live in _New York._ "

Caroline just scowled. "That's why it makes no sense that you even have that thing here. Nobody drives in New York."

He's just shot her an angry look and stormed downstairs, presumably to move it to a safer location. The car was fine, by the way, after a night exposed to the elements. Once he had confirmed this, he seemed in a better mood, but she could see that if she brought it up again it would probably start a massive argument.

She sighed and pushed his eggs towards him again, electing for peace instead. It was a Saturday for fucks sake.

They ate in a sort of sleepy silence, Caroline stuck in her head as she scanned the open sketches on the table and Tyler more hungover than awake at this point. The moment Caroline realised that she was actually doing her work on a Saturday morning when she had the whole weekend to do it, that she pushed the folders closed and looked at Tyler.

She'd made a pledge the night before that sex wasn't going to happen for a couple of days, because of the horrible end to last night, so that was off the table.

She leant forward and swallowed a piece of her egg.

"So," She started playfully. "Why are you going to miss me so very much?"

Tyler's surprised jerk was more enthusiastic than anything she'd been expecting, and that was a little alarming. And yeah, he was actually kind of coughing on a piece of egg that he'd accidentally inhaled.

After a couple of hacking coughs, during which he thumped on his own chest to try and dislodge the homicidal slice of egg, he look at Caroline with worried eyebrows.

Which was also fucking worrying.

"Huh?"

Caroline frowned.

"Last night. While you were cuddling – " Tyler flushed here because obviously he was a man and obviously men couldn't cuddle " – you said you were going to miss me. Planning on leaving me at some point?"

She was mostly joking, as it was. Like, haha, your drunk clingy self was really weird last night let's talk about this now because I'm going to mock you forever. Usually Tyler got that, because he did a lot of really fucking weird shit when he was drunk.

Not so much this time.

"Oh." He just said kind of hollowly.

And then Caroline's ass sunk through her stomach (which was like, the second time in like twelve hours, which was not okay, okay?) and Jesus was this when Tyler dumped her or something? Oh she was so going to kill Matt for setting her up with this douche bag – no seriously she was going to kick his ass. She didn't ask him to be saddled with Tyler, and she certainly didn't ask to be dumped by him.

(If anything, she should be dumping him right? The car tantrum was justification enough right? She could totally get it in before he got to it. Just interrupt him and tell him 'hey, sorry not going to work anymore, Eden wants me to run away and be her lesbian lover and she's my boss, what can I do?')

She did not say this. That did not mean she wasn't still brainstorming ways to break up with him before he broke up with her.

"Tyler – " Is what she did say.

Tyler looked awkwardly around the room for a bit, running his whole hand across his face and muttering, "I'm too hungover to deal with this right now," to himself.

"Big whoop, asshole." Caroline said immediately, her eyes wide and her heart thumping too fast. "Your hangover is your own fault, what the hell is going on?"

His fingers reached his hair, pressing through it, roughing it up. He was looking everywhere but at her, and Caroline could feel her indignant anger growing. Did he not even have the man balls to tell her to her face? That seemed like an extra special brand of douchebaggery when it was already clear what was about to happen.

Tyler took a deep breath. "Let's not do this now. We can go out to dinner tonight, or something – wherever you want?"

Caroline scoffed.

"I'd prefer not to be dumped in a public place, if you don't mind." She said, scowling. "Weird of me, I know."

Tyler flinched in the face of her sarcasm. He held his hands up gently, as if to calm her somehow. (What an asshole). "Caroline, just give me a second to explain."

She scowled some more. Damn right she did. "Wanna dump me quickly – right, sure – what _ever_ you want."

Tyler rolled his eyes.

Caroline very nearly launched herself across the kitchen at him. Goddamnit, she wasn't even wearing _pants_ for god's sake. This is _not_ how she wanted her morning to go. She really should have just slept in.

"I'm not going to dump you!" Tyler finally shouted, quickly before she could say anything else (or physically attack him). "I don't want to break up – I just, I need to explain to you."

Caroline stared at him for a couple of seconds, gaping.

Then she turned on her heel and headed back to their room, without another word.

"Caroline, what – ?"

She got into the room quickly, shaking her head and muttering to herself. The blinds were still shut, Tyler hadn't opened them when he'd gotten out of bed, probably too preoccupied with his car. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for.

Tyler had followed her, was standing in the doorway and looking at her like she'd just gone insane.

"What are you doing?"

Caroline stepped into her underpants, yanking them up to her knees. "This feels like a conversation I should be having while wearing underwear, you know?" she snapped at him, straightening up until she was fully comfy. (She didn't bother with the sexy stuff; she needed comfort at a time like this. Like her _Winnie the Pooh_ panties, instead of the red thong. Eeyore was a bro).

Tyler sighed. "I don't want to break up, Caroline. Of course not." He moved forward, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder. He pressed a kiss to her neck, soft and warm and smelling as great as he always did. (As a kid at high school, Tyler Lockwood had been coveted meat. Even if he'd been preoccupied banging Vicki Donovan, if teenage Caroline could see her now she'd be so happy. Actually no, that was a lie. She'd have wanted to kick current Caroline's ass. Past Caroline was a clingy jealous bitch). "I just – it's complicated."

Caroline took a deep breath and pulled away from him. She turned and dropped onto the edge of her bed, pressing her fingers into the soft blanket.

"So _uncomplicate it_." She ordered.

Tyler nodded mutely, and lifted his arms to seal them behind his head. He seemed stressed about it for another second before he moved to sit next to her on the bed. He didn't just sit though, instead flopping back onto the bed and pressing his hands over his eyes.

"I have to leave for a while." He ended up saying after a moment.

Caroline scowled, but remained silent.

"It's not a breaking up thing," Tyler continued. "But it'll be a while. Work is sending Peter to cover the college games in the Midwest, and he wants me there with him. It'll be a really great opportunity for me – may even mean a promotion when I get back."

Right.

Okay, so that was it.

A promotion was hard work, Caroline knew that much easily. It had taken her ages to get to where she was now, and she was still only an assistant. Making the transition from assistant to designer was all she ever wanted in life, and yet it was still a good couple of years coming. She knew that Tyler had the same sort of ambitions in his line of work (and going from intern at Fox News to head anchor at Fox News was really a little more ludicrous than trying to be a fashion designer, right? He should probably take any option that became available to him).

But also, _guh_ that sucked. She needed a boyfriend around right now, to remind her that her twenty four hour job was worth it, and to relieve all the fucking stress that gathered each day.

And to scare people away from their not super safe New York City apartment. (it was safer than a lot, sure, but they could only afford it by scraping their money together and not buying anything worth more than fifty bucks for their weekly meals).

Which would be a problem if Tyler was out making a name for himself in the college football scene.

"How long?" Caroline asked, twisting to try and catch his eye.

The asshole still had his hands over his eyes. "A couple of months."

Caroline slapped him on the knee. It would have been jokingly if she hadn't hit him so hard, but she pulled no punches. ( _"Ow! – Geez, Caroline!'_ )

"Which months?" She demanded coolly.

Tyler seemed to sink even further into the mattress, as though he wanted to bury himself in the bed and never speak to her again.

Yeah, like _that_ was ever happening.

She pinched him this time, and he flinched but sat up.

"It'll be April through to July," Tyler said quickly, like he was ripping off a bandaid. "I won't be gone permanently – like I get weekends to come home, but we're doing like eight or nine states so we need the time to get around all of them."

Caroline gaped at him.

"It _is_ April, Tyler."

Tyler straightened his back a little, flinching again like he'd thought that she _wouldn't notice._ "Yeah, I know. We leave on the twentieth."

Caroline's eyes nearly bugged the fuck out of her skull. She leapt up from the bed, hitting Tyler in the process but that was just an accidental bonus.

" _It's the fifteenth!"_

Tyler grimaced, but didn't move from where he was sitting on the bed. "Yeah."

"What the _fuck,_ Tyler?"

Tyler shrugged, like there was nothing he could do about it. "I was going to tell you sooner but you were so stressed by everything with the wedding that I didn't know how to. I would have asked you to come with me but you're like fucking married to your job so I knew _that_ wasn't going to happen and I – what are you doing?"

Caroline wasn't looking at him anymore. Her whole body was humming with an emotion she was too angry to even try and identify. He wasn't going to tell her. _He wasn't going to tell her._

Five fucking days. This asshole was leaving in five fucking days and he hadn't been planning on telling her.

She snatched her boots from where they lay near the door, and grabbed a scarf and a belt from the bar in the closet. Furiously, she pulled her shoes onto her feet, still not even sure where she would fucking begin in replying to him.

"Caroline – stop – what are you doing?"

With her feet in her shoes, Caroline straightened up to give her one of the patented Forbes Women family glares. Trying to channel Nurse Ratchet and all other psychotic women she'd ever heard of, her glare silenced his questions pretty fucking quickly.

"I can't do this right now Tyler. I have a wedding to plan, and a shit load of work to do, and a boyfriend who was apparently just going to vanish this Saturday without an explanation.

She stormed out of the apartment without pants.

For a second she thought she may have to go back into the house and try to hang onto her dignity while she grabbed her jeans. But she was a fashion intern and even if the shirt dress thing had kind of had its day, it was better than going back to talk to him for now.

So fuck it.

\\\

In the end though, she had to face the music. She got back home after about half an hour,

When she walked through the door, Tyler was sitting at the kitchen island, now fully clothes. (Here meaning that he'd pulled on a grey hoodie to wear with his boxers). Unfortunately, the first look he employed was that big eyed puppy dog face that _always_ fucking got her and she calmed down a bit.

Now don't get her wrong though. She didn't calm down that much.

Because, you know, Caroline Forbes could hold a fucking _grudge._

She closed the door carefully behind her and dropped her bag on the table with the keys. Then she levelled him with a stare.

"What are we going to do about the apartment?" She asked.

Tyler blinked.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes.

"The apartment, you ass." She repeated, gesturing madly to the whole beautiful loft she'd made her home. "The one we split the rent for? What are we going to do about it if you're leaving for so long? Are you just going to send your half from wherever you are?"

One look at the awkward expression on his face told her that no, no he was not planning to do any such thing.

He scratched the back of his neck and refused to meet her eye. Then he mumbled something.

"What?" she snapped furiously.

He took a deep breath and looked at her. Caroline would have been pissed she hadn't intimidated him more, but he was watching her with wide, careful eyes and she figured that was good enough.

"I was thinking maybe you could stay at a hotel." He said, holding his head up high.

Not for long though, because whatever he clearly sees in her face while he's holding his head up high is enough to make him flinch and awkwardly look away again.

Which is probably the smartest thing he could do at that point.

Because a hotel?

A motherfucking.

_Hotel?_

"Are you fucking with me right now?" she demanded, her voice on the borderline of deadly calm.

Tyler apparently then decided that a pre-emptive strike was what he needed to stop her going nuclear. He held up his hands like she was holding a loaded gun in his face and started talking, faster than he ever had before.

"Look, I looked it up. It's really not that much more expensive than here, and they're happy to let people loan out rooms. Plus, you'll be able to order room service whenever you want, and you could find somewhere with a pool. _And_ you could probably find somewhere closer to work, if you want - that's probably way more convenient than staying in this dump."

Caroline bristled at the dump reference. She _liked_ her place. It was her place long before it was his place. It had been her and Elena's place, sure, but Caroline had been the one who'd found it and fallen in love and made it everything it was today.

So yeah. The dump comment smarted a little. But she let it drop for the more important matters.

Like how her boyfriend wanted her to be a fucking _lodger._

"Do you know the sound restrictions they put on hotels, Tyler?" she demanded acidly. "I'm up every night doing work for Eden. Do you know how _fast_ I'd be kicked out of a place like that, just because I didn't go to sleep at ten pm?"

Tyler shrugged innocently.

"Doesn't that just say more about your work hours though?"

Caroline stared at him.

Tyler swallowed.

"I just mean, you can get more rest. Adjust your sleep times and stuff. Then you'll be more relaxed, right?"

From there, the night just about descends into chaos.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> For updates on the fic and to chat to me about it, follow me on tumblr (eisenbangme.tumblr).


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